prison

Atenco, 3rd of May 2008

From 10:00 a.m. there took place in Atenco an action in memory of those fallen on the 3rd of May 2006 as a result of the repression of the community meted out by Governor Peña Nieto and then-President Vicente Fox. The event began with an offering to Alexis Benhumea and Francisco Javier Cortes, on the Lechería -Texcoco Highway, the main entrance to Atenco.

The United States has once again surpassed its own world record for incarcerating the highest percentage of its population. According to a report released by the Bureau of Prison Statistics, one out of every 32 adults was in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005.

On Tuesday, smoking was banned both inside and outside of Quebec's 18 prisons. Just before midnight on Thursday, 30-50 prisoners rioted and set fire to a wing at the Orsainville detention centre near Quebec City. This was met by a statement from Public Security Minister Jacques Dupuis the morning after, stating that prisoners would be allowed to smoke outside.

The youth was being held in an établissement pénitentiaire pour mineurs (EPM penitentiary establishment for minors.) in Meyzieu. This EPM was the first in the country and since its opening it has been plagued with problems. The prison authorities kept the news from other inmates until Monday "to avoid an explosion". So far five of the planned seven EPMs have been opened.

The Substance of Abuse

Some 20,000 prison officers in England and Wales took illegal unofficial action on Wednesday 29 August against Gordon Brown’s public sector wage cuts and the disastrous overcrowding in prisons.

Fahima's plea bargain meant that her release was supposed to have occured on September 13th, but it was delayed due to an incident in which she was "rude to a warden." This was just the latest step in a campaing to leave her in perpetual custody, ever since she was imprisoned on August 9th, 2004 for allegedly plotting to take part in a terrorist attack.

The ITUC and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) today welcomed the release of detained Iranian trade unionist Mansour Osanloo, while deploring the fact that he had to post additional bail to ensure his release. Osanloo was already on bail of 150 million Toman (US$ 165,000), stemming from his previous detention by the authorities from 22 December 2005 to 9 August 2006.

December 3, 2006 - According to a news release issued by the Syndicate of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company (Sherkat-e Vahed), two other members of the Board of Directors of the union were arrested today, December 3rd, 2006 in Tehran's Khavaran bus terminal but were released late this evening. They are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow morning, December 4, 2006.

The Iles du Salut are situated off Cayenne, in what was French Guyana in South America. These three prison islands – of which Devil's Island is the most infamous - were reserved by the French authorities for hard cases, for repeated escapees and for political prisoners. In the course of time many anarchists were sent to these hell-holes.

Anthelme Girier
aka Jean Baptiste Lorion, born 1869 - France, died 16 November 1898 - French Guyana

“But we do not fear you or your hangmen. Soviet 'justice' may kill us, but you will never kill our ideals. We shall die as anarchists and not as bandits.”
- The anarchist Machanovskii at his trial before the Petrograd Revolutionary Tribunal, 13th and 22nd December 1922

Adopt a prisoner
If you’re active in a group or campaign why not choose one or two prisoners to consistently support. Pass cards round meetings, send useful stuff, knock up a flyposter and get their case some publicity if they could use it, get in touch with the prisoner’s support group if there is one. Of course you can take this on as an individual, too.

Starting out

Introduction
Imprisonment as a form of punishment can be traced back to Greek times, but until relatively recently long-term incarceration was extremely rare, only flourishing in modern times after transportation to 'the colonies' became unviable (in no small part due to the American Revolution).

On August 29th, a row began in a café, 'Chayka', in Kondologa, Russia. The fight was between drunken local youths and the Chechen criminal group, which ran the cafe.

If the Bush administration is still good at anything, it's this: distracting its opponents and seizing little victories from what might have been big defeats.

On Wednesday, the House approved its version of the measure, leaving it to a vote in the Senate today. Under the new bill, detainees would be prevented from challenging their imprisonment and denied access to evidence used against them.

Gris Ris
In 1988 the Chief Inspector of Prisons Stephen Tumim described Risley as 'barbarous and squalid', `appalling and totally unacceptable', `dirty and dilapidated'.

There were eruptions against the convict labour system in the South, in which prisoners were leased in slave labour to corporations, used thus to depress the general level of wages and also to break strikes.